Forest protection in Central India: do differences in monitoring by state and local institutions result in diverse social and ecological impacts?

Protection of forests and wildlife outside protected areas (PAs) is necessary for the conservation of wildlife. Extension of conservation efforts outside the existing PA may result in restrictions on local forest resource use. Such situations arise due to differences in understanding of forest as a resource for communities and as a conservation space for endangered species. A clearer focus is needed on the functionality and socio-ecological outcomes of different forest management institutions to address such issues. We conducted a study in a forest landscape connecting Pench and Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserves (TRs) in Central India. The two main forest management institutions were the Forest Department (FD) and local communities managing forest resources. We conducted vegetation surveys and focus group discussions in 15 villages selected based on presence or absence of active protection and monitoring of forest resources by either FD or local people. We found that forests with monitoring had significantly higher tree density and vegetation species richness compared to forests without monitoring. Tree density was observed to be higher in sites monitored by villagers rather than those monitored by FD. Self-regulation and resource sharing in locally monitored forests were more acceptable to local communities. In forests monitored by the FD, local communities indicated a feeling of alienation from the forest that weakened their motivation to protect the forest and wildlife. Recognition of local community rights is essential to achieve conservation goals and reduce social conflicts outside PAs, requiring collaboration between state and local institutions.     

Traditional Water Resource Management and Water Quality in Rural Tanzania

Traditional resource management (TRM) is largely based on local ecological knowledge (LEK). In regions where formal institutional control of natural resources is limited due to a lack of coordination or stakeholder involvement, communities rely on TRM to manage common-pool resources. This paper examines TRM among the Sonjo in rural Northern Tanzania, with particular reference to catchment forest protection and water quality. We first document the ecological knowledge of traditional resource managers, and then describe the differences between traditionally managed water sources and formal, government managed resources. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine water use, perceptions of water quality, and bacterial water quality, significant differences were detected among river basins within seasons and between seasons. Our findings indicate that the Sonjo, well known for their traditional forest conservation practices and irrigation management, may also benefit from TRM through improved water quality. The examination of traditional methods of water conservation provides insight into how communities in resource-stressed regions thrive despite seasonal droughts and flooding.     

Fragmentation,Cooperation and Power: Institutional Dynamics in Natural Resource Governance in North-Western Namibia

Contemporary theoretical accounts of common pool resource management assume that communities are able to develop institutions for sustainable resource management if they are given security of access and appropriate rights of management. In recent years comprehensive legal reforms of communal rural resource management in Namibia have sought to create an institutional framework linking the sustainable use of natural resources (game, water, forest) and rural development. The state, however, ceded rights to rural communities in an ambiguous and fragmented manner, creating a number of instances of overlapping property rights and different legal conditions for different natural resources. Nowadays communities grapple with the challenge of developing institutions for these resource-centered “new commons”. This paper describes the process of local institutional development, focusing on the challenges arising from the necessity to define group boundaries, the issues arising from monitoring and sanctioning within newly defined institutions, and the ideological underpinnings of different trajectories of communal resource management.     

Hunting with Polar Bears: Problems with the Passive Properties of the Commons

Inuit in Canada’s Arctic conceptualize both human hunters and their polar bear prey as active participants in the hunt and as part of a larger socio-economic system requiring the involvement of both humans and animals. Although often treated through the lens of common-pool resource theory, the Inuit viewpoint conflicts with Western wildlife management systems that typically treat animals, and nature in general, as passive. When polar bears are understood as active participants in the hunt, the rights associated with common property regimes and assumptions about collective-choice decisions in common-pool resource management require significant revision. In this paper we argue that common-pool resource theories which assume natural resources are inherently passive cannot adequately account for the system of active relationships operating among Inuit in Arctic Canada. The co-management system of Nunavut Territory, Canada, uses a flexible quota approach, which, while following conservation guidelines, allows some space for the traditional Inuit-polar bear system to operate. This example shows how common-pool resources may be managed sustainably without the attendant assumption that natural resources exist passively outside of common-pool resource regimes.     

Institutions and incentives for biodiversity conservation

Incentive measures for biodiversity conservation cannot be evaluated and compared outside the context of institutional performance and relationships. The institutional framework for biodiversity incentives includes a variety of organizations operating on different spatial scales. The institutional actors with an impact on biodiversity include community groups, local and national governmental structures, NGOs, business enterprises and international organizations. But the positve influence of conservation-oriented organizations is often significantly outweighed by the negative influence of other sets of institutional actors who are largely unaware of biodiversity as a concept and not unduly concerned with its conservation. There are several options for improving the institutional framework for biodiversity incentives: (1) decentralization of resource management decision making to local levels; (2) engaging and reorienting government institutions; (3) establishing new national and international institutions; and (4) establishing functional linkages between key institutional actors. The role of local, national and international institutions in designing and implementing effective incentive measures for biodiversity conservation will be critical. But the dynamics within and between institutional actors influencing biodiversity conservation are complex, variable and insufficiently understood, somewhat like biodiversity itself.     

The strategic pillars of communal natural resource management: benefit, empowerment and conservation

Originally prepared as a keynote address for the 2008 La Tapoa Workshop on Natural Resource Management (NRM) and Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), this paper examines the Southern African experience in CBNRM over the past 20 years. From this experience the paper draws lessons on when and where CBNRM is appropriate, what can make it work, and what can make it work better. These lessons are discussed under the three categories of benefit, conservation and empowerment. Benefit is usually conceptualized in terms of financial revenue, and using a Zimbabwean case study the paper shows how in unusual circumstances this can be substantial. Normally, however, natural resource production can only supplement inputs from agriculture and other modes of production, and the paper warns against regarding CBNRM as a panacea for rural poverty. Benefit should also be understood in non-pecuniary terms, and when economic benefit is linked with authority and responsibility large increments in social capital can result. The conservation interests of donors are often perceived as being at odds with local perspectives, a perception which fails to take into consideration means-end-sequencing. A socially constructed stalemate often occurs when external agencies impose their agendas upon local populations, a stalemate which can be broken when communities are given the authority and responsibility necessary to create internally legitimate regimes. A new science which combines professional and civil inputs is required to achieve CBNRM’s goal—empowered and dynamic local regimes integrated into larger scale systems of conservation and development.     

Common Property and Conservation: The Potential for Effective Communal Forest Management Within a National Park in Mexico

Common property regimes may contribute to environmental conservationand offer a complementary institutional model to state-run protected areas. The potential conservation value of common property management is of particular significance in Mexico, where a large majority of forests are held communally. Systems of common property management often exist in a context of close institutional overlap with state institutions. This project assessed the function of a common property regime nested within Lagunas de Montebello National Park (PNLM) in Chiapas, Mexico. We documented forest status and analyzed common property forest management institutions following severe fires that threatened forest conservation. Forests managed by the common property regime are less intact than federal forests, yet still moderately conserved, and many attributes necessary for common property management are functional, despite the recent fire crisis. Yet external authorities contest common property management by local institutions, resulting in limited joint management by the national park and the community. Formalization and expansion of de facto cooperation between the federal and community institutions may enhance forest conservation within PNLM.     

Inadequate community engagement hamstrings sustainable wildlife resource management in Zambia

We propose improvements for addressing the inadequate sustainable use of wildlife resources in the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme in game management areas (GMAs) using case study data from Mumbwa and Lupande GMAs in Zambia. Firstly, we assess the sustainability of wildlife resources in these GMAs using design principles for enduring common pool institutions. Secondly, we propose the steps required to address the lack of sustainability of wildlife resources in the CBNRM programme in the two GMAs by building on indicators suggested by Ostrom's principles. The resource use patterns in the two GMAs were assessed according to their socio-economic and institutional factors. Comparisons were made between the two GMAs in relation to Ostrom's design principles. Accordingly, the combination of socio-economic and institutional factors restrains the sustainable use of wildlife resources in the two GMAs. Unless the Zambian government provides local communities with meaningful decision-making powers and benefits for the utilisation and management of wildlife, this resource is likely to disappear outside national parks.     

Environmental Impacts and Scarcity Perception Influence Local Institutions in Indigenous Amazonian Kichwa Communities

Much of the literature on common-pool resources has focused on elucidating the social mechanisms and local institutions that lead to the regulation of common-pool resources. There is much less information about how management regimes translate into environmental impacts or how environmental impacts influence the emergence of management decisions. We use quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the link between forest condition, agricultural change and the emergence of common-pool resource management regimes in two indigenous Kichwa communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. We show that forest condition is linked to agricultural production and that the perception of common-pool resource scarcity influences the emergence of management regimes. We argue that population pressure, market forces and resource scarcity, which are usually associated with measures of agricultural change can also promote the emergence of common-pool resource management regimes.     

Socio-economic values and traditional strategies of managing wetland resources in Lower Tana River, Kenya

Understanding local people's socio-economic values of wetlands and traditional mechanisms of managing natural resources forms the basis of conserving them. In order to sustainably manage wetland resources in Tana River National Primate Reserve (TRNPR) and its environs, a study was carried out to document values, threats and traditional strategies of managing natural resources. The target communities were the Pokomo and Wardei who inhabit the TRNPR. The study was carried out in different periods in the year 2000 and 2001 and entailed administration of questionnaires, interviews and focused group discussions. Thirty residents were interviewed from six villages in the west bank of Tana River. The study found that oxbow lakes and Tana River formed the main types of wetlands and provided multiple values such as farming, transportation, security and social-cultural values to the local people. These values formed an important premise for conservation. Farming and fishing were the main economic activities of the Pokomo people while Wardei combined livestock rearing with occasional shifting cultivation. The two communities used different traditional systems in managing resources that they needed for their livelihood. The study concludes that the local people can and indeed must play a central role in the conservation of threatened wildlife and habitats in the Lower Tana River.     

Co-existence between the traditional societies and wildlife in western Serengeti, Tanzania: its relevancy in contemporary wildlife conservation efforts

This paper seeks to show how the traditional societies in western Serengeti have coexisted and continue to coexist with wildlife. It also recognizes the relevancy of this coexistence in furthering contemporary conservation efforts although there are practical constraints to putting this into practice. The following questions are examined: (1) How did/do traditional societies in Serengeti interact with their nature? (2) Which traditional management institutions governed/govern interaction between people and wildlife species, resources and ecosystems and, how do they operate? (3) Which factors were (or are) responsible for erosion of traditional management institutions? (4) What can the traditional practices offer to contemporary conservation efforts and what are the limitations? The paper identifies four ways in which traditional institutions and practices can contribute to current conservation efforts: regulating the overexploitation of resources; complementing the current incentives aiming at diffusing prevailing conflicts between conservation authorities and communities; minimising the costs of law enforcement and; complementing the modern scientific knowledge in monitoring and responding to ecosystem processes and functions. The practical constraints likely to limit adoption of these practices are presented as: methodological complications of acquiring indigenous knowledge; prevailing historical conflicts; human population growth; poverty and lack of appreciation among the conservation planners and managers. In conclusion the need to address the current constraints in order to achieve effective taping of the existing potentials is emphasized.     

传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架

传统生态知识是民族生态学研究的核心范畴,国外已有多年的研究基础,国内的相关研究正是方兴未艾。通过文献查询和比较分析等方法,介绍了国外已有的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架的3个模型:知识-实践-信仰的三角形框架;本土经验知识-资源管理知识-社会制度知识-世界观知识的四椭圆框架;事实观察-管理体系-旧有及当下利用-伦理价值-文化特征-宇宙观的五边形框架。结合田野调查研究,提出了一个立体的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析模型,强调了传统生态知识的动态特征,将民族对于自然的被动认识和主动认知、民族人际关系规范、民族的哲学与伦理等方面所呈现出的传统生态知识进行了分类,从而为民族生态学的调查研究提供了方法上的建议。最后总结了这个立体的传统生态知识分析框架的意义,并建议在我国的生态文明建设中发展和应用民族生态学。     

Increasing population and declining biological resources in the context of global change and globalization

In the context of over-consumption of natural resources in the name of development and rapid industrialization by a small section of the human population that is rapidly growing, the world is currently faced with a variety of environmental uncertainties. ‘Global change’ covering a whole variety of ecological issues, and ‘globalization’ in an economic sense, are two major phenomena that are responsible for these uncertainties. There is increasing evidence to suggest that the developing countries more than the developed, particularly the marginalized traditional (those living close to nature and natural resources) societies would be the worst sufferers. In order to cope with this problem in a situation where the traditional societies have to cope with rapidly depleting biodiversity on which they are dependant for their livelihood, there is an urgent need to explore additional pathways for sustainable management of natural resources and societal development. Such pathways should be based on a landscape management strategy, that takes into consideration the rich traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that these societies have. This is critical because TEK is the connecting link between conservation and sustainable development. This paper explores the possibilities in this direction through a balanced approach to development, that links the ‘traditional’ with the ‘modern’, in a location-specific way.     

Partnering for Greater Success: Local Stakeholders and Research in Tropical Biology and Conservation

Local communities are important stakeholders in resource management and conservation efforts, particularly in the developing world. Although evidence is mixed in suggesting that these resident stakeholders are optimal forest stewards, it is highly unlikely that large tracts of tropical forests will be conserved without engaging local people who depend on them daily for their livelihoods. Stakeholders, who reside in biodiverse ecosystems like tropical forests, are the largest direct users and ultimate decision-makers of forest fate, can be important investors in conservation, harbor local ecological knowledge that complements Western science and frequently have long-term legitimate claims on lands where they reside. Research partnerships with local stakeholders can increase research relevance, enhance knowledge exchange and result in greater conservation success. Different phases of the research cycle present distinct opportunities for partnership, with flexibility in timing, approaches and strategies depending on researcher and local stakeholder needs and interests. Despite being the last step in the research process, dissemination of results can be the best starting point for researchers interested in experimenting with local stakeholder engagement. Still, tropical biologists might not choose to partner with local people because of lack of institutional rewards, insufficient training in stakeholder engagement, insecure research infrastructure in community settings, and time and funding limitations. Although not appropriate in all cases and despite significant challenges, some biological scientists and research institutions have successfully engaged local stakeholders in the research process, proving mutually beneficial for investigators and local people alike and resulting in important innovations in tropical biology and conservation.     

In Situ conservation of maize in Mexico: Genetic diversity and Maize seed management in a traditional community

Results from a study of maize varieties and seed sources in a traditional community in Jalisco, Mexico, raise questions about the relationship between genetic erosion and the introduction of varieties. The relevance of models for in situ conservation of crop genetic resources based on geographical isolation of a community is discussed. The morphophenological diversity of local materials is shown to be enhanced by introductions of both improved cultivars and landraces from farmers in other communities. On the other hand, the geographical point of reference for defining “local” landrace is shown to be larger than the community itself. Farmers will classify seed obtained from other farmers in and outside the community as that of a local landrace if it resembles their own according to the phenotypic characteristics they use to distinguish varieties. Maize diversity in this community is then the result of a certain level of introduction of genetic material and not of geographical isolation.     

Postmodernism and African conservation science

In Africa, the movement away from traditional protectionist conservation to community-based approaches is partially related to postmodernist influences. Proposed transfrontier conservation areas will incorporate local communities, and a clearer understanding of the limitations of community-based conservation is thus needed. The sustainability of community-based conservation projects is questioned on economic and other grounds, and many African countries lack the prerequisites (ecological, demographic and sociological) for successful programmes. The romanticisation of pre-colonial societies gives undue weight to traditional systems of resource management, and we challenge the postmodernist notion that traditional peoples practised sustainable harvesting of natural resources. It is suggested that this will occur only under unlikely conditions of low human population density, lack of access to modern technology, and limited exposure to consumerism. In agriculture, postmodernists interpret the overstocking of livestock as a rational socioeconomic response, thus giving the practice unjustified legitimacy. The allied proposition that peasants enjoy a rich diversity of farming practices is largely unfounded, at least in some parts of Africa. We conclude that postmodernist thinking has had a significant negative impact on conservation science in Africa, largely by marginalising the central issue of human population pressure. Towards more effective African conservation, we suggest roles for the ecologist, for the social scientist, and for the donor community.     

社区为主体的保护: 对三江源国家公园生态管护公益岗位的思考

社区参与是实现生物多样性保护目标的重要途径, 也是我国国家公园建设的重要组成部分。青海省三江源国家公园在前期试点中设置了16621个生态管理公益岗位, 当地牧民因此成为三江源保护的主要力量。本文通过对三江源地区已进行的生态管理公益岗位的调研发现, 由于传统文化和环保宣传的影响, 三江源当地藏族牧民具有较高的保护环境意识和参与保护行动的强烈愿望, 生态公益岗位是对这种愿望的良好回应。但在实践中, 因为需要兼顾提升生态保护成效、提升牧民收入、扶贫等多重目标, 生态管护员的选拔、管理、考核等并未按照最大化保护成效的方式进行。国家公园试点村中, 生态管护员全部由贫困户担任的方式, 实质上是将完成扶贫目标摆在了完成自然保护目标之前。这样的选择方式有着深刻的制度根源。为了进一步提升国家公园内生态公益岗位的保护成效, 我们认为应当明确生态管理公益岗位的定位, 明确提升保护成效是第一位的任务; 应当改进现有体制, 使基层政府有更多资源和空间组织管护工作, 并增加社区的参与程度。在这一过程中, 有民间机构参与的广阔空间。     

Ecodevelopment planning at India’sGreat Himalayan National Parkfor biodiversity conservationand participatory rural development

The existing network of Protected Areas (PAs) in India is the major effort aimed at biodiversity conservation at the national level. The sustainability of PAs is heavily influenced by local people who are largely dependent on natural resources (fuel, fodder, minor forest products) for their livelihood. While all PAs are surrounded by historically resource-dependent communities, several of them have villages within their core areas, too. This has necessitated an alternative approach to natural resource management which aims to integrate the interests of conservation with those of the nearby resource dependent communities. The case of the Great Himalayan National Park illustrates and incorporates the lessons from Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) implemented elsewhere in the world.     

Fire as a tool in the management of a savanna/dry forest reserve in Madagascar

Abstract. The possible use of fire for the management of the Ankarafantsika Reserve in the northwest of Madagascar and of its surrounding area is studied. Within this savanna landscape large parts of the remaining dry forests still exist with a unique biotic diversity, both in terms of total number of species and endemism. Unfortunately, mainly man-induced uncontrolled fires threaten these forests. Actual and former fire regimes of the local communities are analysed. The use of fire is an integrated part of land use and is also governed by socio-cultural traditions. The impact of fire on the dynamics of dry forests and grass savannas is studied considering the specifics of different fire regimes. We propose that a deliberate and controlled use of fire respecting the vegetation stage and the defined objectives could be an appropriate management tool. The strategy of a fire management is elaborated considering both the conservation of biodiversity and improvement of the livelihood of the local population depending upon the Reserve's resources. Obviously, a sustainable management of the natural resources requires a substantial participation of the community.